Don’t call New Zealand a fairy tale team

In a sense it’s the fault, for the lack of a better word, of New Zealand cricketers themselves that they are so understated, sometimes so contradictorily.

You look at their greatest players over the years, like Martin Crowe or Richard Hadlee or Stephen Fleming or Daniel Vettori, and they are so unlike the celebrated superstars of the cricket fraternity. They never swaggered or strutted around the field with the aura of one, and were even bafflingly self-depreciating. If Martin Crowe was a supreme tactician and a batsman exemplar, he, by his own admission, was torn with self doubt. Fleming and Vettori, somehow, hadn’t the charisma or the ruthlessness of macho skippers either. In that sense, McCullum was perhaps a one-off, but even he wasn’t one the enemy would love to hate. These are sunny, genial blokes, the little fellas always punching above the weight, a mirror-image of their rivals across the Tasman sea. It may also owe to their fluctuating performances outside the World Cup. So you feel a fairy-tale script waiting to unfold every time they walk onto the field, with a sort of laid-back simplicity reminiscent of cricket’s less mercenary past.

All condition gear

So it was grossly predictable that their unbeaten run in this World Cup was viewed through a similar prism-with a familiar grin and an ingrained intuition that their dream run is more flukish and could end sooner than later, like how Leicester City’s unprecedented run was viewed by the English media until last month. And sport narrators have an incredible liking for such feel-good stories.

But in reality, like Leicester’s blinking run, it’s not sheer fluke or an auspicious alignment of stars that has seen them convincingly roll over their opponents. It’s much more than that, so much so that the term fairy tale acquires a slightly depreciating or undervaluing tone. It’s just that they are tactically as organised as flexible. It’s as much as about application and execution as good coaching and sharp strategising.

Whether it’s about reading the pitch or getting the permutation correct, they have been utmost accurate. In all their four super 10 matches, they were disposed with different surfaces, and on every instance they have had the right answers, reinforcing that they are not surface-reliant. That belief or the mindset that they can prosper irrespective of the surfaces gives them a valuable headway. “Who knows, it could be a slightly different pitch (in Delhi)? We might be playing on a different one when we get there. We could be playing on a used pitch, we don’t really know. But it’s nothing new for us to have to adapt,” coach Mike Hesson had said after the Bangladesh match.

More importantly, they have the right set of players in every department to excel in every condition. They have a versatile spin troika – a very modern off-spinner in Nathan McCullum, a more conventional left-arm spinner in Mitchell Santner and a leg-spinner unabashed to flight the ball in this format in Ish Sodhi. The pace firmament so much-utilitarian that their most experienced bowlers have been reduced to bench-warmers. Depending on their opposition and the surface, they can pick any two from a group comprising a left-arm seamer who has mastered the cutters, a right-handed tearaway, a right-arm swinger and another left-armer who can hem the ball both ways in conditions with a hint of assistance.

Picking the perfect combo, says Taylor, is an instinct. “It’s probably more instinct than anything. We have judged conditions very well and obviously winning the toss in all four games too has probably played its part. But we wanted to just pick the team on the condition. Both times that we played the extra spinner, obviously it has been very dry. We haven’t gone there with too many preconceived ideas,” he elucidated.

Understated, unassuming

The batting, even without Brendon McCullum, has a throbbing menace about it, batsmen who can thrive on any condition and can modulate their tempo according to the situation. Even skipper Kane Williamson, hitherto playing second fiddle to Martin Guptill, can tee-off when the circumstances demand so, as borne out by his T20I strike rate of 124.66. And there has not been an instance when they have all failed collectively-every crisis has a man putting his arm up and completing the role.

Like their bowlers, the batsmen too have been adaptive to the conditions, like for instance the instinctively aggressive Corey Anderson shelved his habits against India on a raging turner in Nagpur, his 34 soaking up 42 deliveries, this from a man who temporarily held the record for the fastest 100 in ODIs. Likewise, Ross Taylor has moved out of his comfort zone of batting at number three/four to undertake a more demanding role at number five and accommodate a more explosive batsman in Colin Munro.

And they are led by a man who easily falls into the Crowe-Fleming-Vettori mould – understated and unassuming, but with a steeliness camouflaged in that brooding poet’s exterior of his. Williamson may not be the most expressive or vocal skippers in the game – in that sense an anachronism – but he clearly has a sharp brain and an ability to think on the feet, which is so vital to the modern game. “Kane is not vocal yet. In time he will have a style that he feels comfortable with and mould the side to his liking. Brendon retiring before Christmas, gave Kane got a lot to time to learn of Brendon first of all and to come up with a style that is nice to him. It is never easy to captain after Brendon’s style and charisma. I think he batted but also they way he talked and used the big words. Kane is genuine in the way he comes about and talks and soften spoken and may be in three years you will see his real character,” pointed out Ross Taylor.

Williamson embraces the same aggressive approach as McCullum’s, only that he seems more measured and subtle. Just like his batting. And this is a New Zealand side-as our flawed perceptions hurriedly pigeonhole-that believes they are realistic title suitors. And one fine day can burn the great fairy-tale stereotype, without any magic dust.

New Zealand, despite their remarkable consistency, are always labelled the underdogs or dark horses. But numbers beg to differ:

Track record
ODI World Cup
Final: 2015
Semifinals: 1975, 1979, 1992, 1999, 2007, 2011
Quarterfinal: 1996

ICC Champions Trophy
Best: Champions (2000)
Final: 2009
Semifinal: 2006
Quarterfinal: 1998

T20 World Cup
Best: Semifinal (2007)

X-factor
Spinners to the fore: Most of their famous wins have been fashioned by batsmen or fast bowlers. But in this installment of the World T20, their spinners have hogged the limelight. The threesome of Nathan McCullum, Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi have shared 20 wickets, and at sub-six-an-over economy rate (McCullum’s 4.20, Sodhi’s 4.97 and Santner’s 5.73). Apart from Mitchell McClenaghan, none of the eight bowlers they used has leaked more than seven an over.

162.33

Among batsmen who have scored more than 120 runs in this tournament, Martin Guptill has the highest strike rate.

43

is the average openers Kane Williamson and Martin Guptill have managed in three innings in this World Cup. Overall, they have combined 50 or more runs on as many as eight instances in their last 10 matches.